Don Emde embarked on a San Diego-to-New York motorcycle ride Saturday precisely at 9 a.m. — the same time Erwin “Cannonball” Baker departed on May 3, 1914.

“One hundred years to the minute,” Emde said.

Emde, 63, is doing his best to re-create a historic 11½-day journey that breathless reporters dubbed the “Cannonball Run.” Emde and 27 companions are following the original route, riding every day where Baker rode, stopping every night where Baker stopped.

But there are differences, especially in the Creature Comforts Department.

“We’ve got nice hotels and plenty of gas stations and Jacuzzis when we’re sore,” said Joe Colombero, 55, a Laguna Beach resident. “He was sleeping on the ground or on people’s porches.”

Baker set out in another era, motoring across a different land. When the Indianapolis adventurer left San Diego, there were no interstate highways and a paucity of paved roads. When it rained — and Baker departed in the midst of a rare San Diego shower — dirt tracks could turn into quagmires. His course sometimes meandered, as he veered off in search of scarce gas stations.

In Arizona, one of those stations was on an Indian reservation. Locals surrounded the stranger — not in a hostile manner, but to admire the logo on his 1000cc motorcycle.

“Indian,” it said.

“Nice name,” tribal members told Baker.

Scuba

Emde, who publishes a motorcycle enthusiast’s magazine called Parts, grew up in National City. His grandfather and father were both dedicated riders; the latter, Floyd Emde, won one of the sport’s great races, the Daytona 200, in 1948. Among the dignitaries to congratulate the victor was Baker.

Don Emde followed in his father’s footsteps — or exhaust trail — by winning the Daytona 200 in 1972. Fascinated by his sport’s history, he was struck a few years ago when he heard someone refer to a casual coast-to-coast ride as a “cannonball run.”

“I thought Cannonball deserved better,” he said.

Hoping to commemorate the epic 1914 ride, Emde turned up a pamphlet printed by the Indian motorcycle company, celebrating Baker’s feat. Exploring archives in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Columbus, Ohio, he learned details of Baker’s later life — the son who died in his teens, the wife who died of heartbreak, the late-in-life stint as NASCAR’s first commissioner. And he charted his cross-country route.

Even today, portions of this journey are challenging. Saturday’s journey to Yuma involved off-road riding in the dunes near Glamis; today’s route to Phoenix is part paved, part not; and Monday’s leg involves 50 miles of dirt.

“Then we get to Globe, Ariz.,” Emde said, “and it’s 3,000 miles of pavement to New York.”

Riders in the group that will go all the way across America line up in formation for the Harbor Island departure and hope to take a similar photo at Battery Park in Manhattan with the Statue of Liberty in the ...
— John Gastaldo

National City native Don Emde, on yellow bike leads the trip across America as they go south on Interstate 5 to Eastbound SR 94 recreating the same route taken by Cannonball Baker 100 years ago to the day.
— John Gastaldo

Shattered record

Largely forgotten today, Baker once was a celebrity whose exploits were followed by the American public. Motor sports were starting to capture the national imagination — the Indianapolis 500 had begun just three years before, with a field that included future World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker — and Baker was a two-wheeled star. He had already completed several daring motorcycle trips, including a 12,000-mile epic. That journey took him from Indiana to San Diego by way of Miami and, via several assists from ferry boats, Havana and Mexico City.